(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a broadcast program transmission/reception system for providing broadcast programs including video and music programs.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Recently, in addition to existing ground wave broadcasting, various broadcasting methods using communications satellites, broadcasting satellites, community antenna televisions (CATV), the Internet have become available.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional system for providing pay broadcast programs inexpensively to viewers. This system consists of a pay broadcast program site 101, a commercial sponsor site 102, and a viewer's terminal 103.
The pay broadcast program site 101 contains pay broadcast programs relating to movies, sports, news, music, and the like. The pay broadcast program site 101 broadcasts pay broadcast programs into which commercials contained in the commercial sponsor site 102 are inserted, as the viewer's terminal 103 requests.
The commercial sponsor site 102 pays an advertisement fee to the pay broadcast program site 101 for the commercials inserted into the pay broadcast program.
The viewer's terminal 103 designates a broadcast program title to request a pay broadcast program with commercials from the pay broadcast program site 101, and receives and reproduces the broadcast program. Then, the viewer's terminal 103 pays a charge for the broadcast program to the pay broadcast program site 101. In this case, the charge has been deducted by the insertion of commercials.
In such a system, the viewer's terminal 103 issues a request for a pay broadcast program to the pay broadcast program site 101 via the Internet, while the pay broadcast program site 101 transmits the pay broadcast program with commercials to the viewer's terminal via broadcasting satellites, for one example.
However, in the case of a popular pay broadcast program, the number of viewer's terminals that request the broadcast program would be enormously large, so that requests for the broadcast program would become in confusion on the Internet which uses public communication line.
Meanwhile, in terms of copyright protection of pay broadcast programs, the pay broadcast program site 101 has to protect against the illegal use of pay broadcast programs with commercials.